IPA phoneme \eɪ\
In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol /eɪ/ corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "face", "cake" and "play". This diphthong is informally called “long a” or the long sound of the letter a. A better pronounceable name is the vowel of FACE. In strict IPA diphthongs need an inverted breve under their less prominent vowel: /eɪ̯/. However in English no vowel can follow /e/, and therefore the inverted breve can be omitted. In Australian English this phoneme sounds æɪ̯, which may be confused with /aɪ/. However /aɪ/ in Australian English sounds ɑe̯. In Estuary English there is a similar phenomenon: /eɪ/ sounds ʌɪ̯ and /aɪ/ sounds Common words Some common words which practice the pronunciation of /eɪ/ include the following: * with "a'" :*with magic e: ache - age - base - blame - brake - case - create - date - escape - face - game - hate - lake - late - male - make - name - place - plate - rate - sale - same - sane - snake - space - stage - stale - state - take - trade - wave - whale :*Followed by one consonant: agency - baby - basic - basis - behavior - behaviour - education - famous - favor - favour - information - lady - major - nature - orgatiz'a'tion - paper - patient - radio - safety - situation - station :*Followed by two consonants: able - ancient - arrange - change - danger - enable - exchange - Rachel - range - strange - table - taste - waste * with "'ai": aid - aim - brain - chain - claim - detail - explain - fail - gain - hail - jail - main - paid - rain - raise - remain - snail - stain - straight - train - trait - wait * with "ay": * with "ei": eight - neighbor - neighbour - weigh - weighed - weight * with "ey": grey - hey - survey - they * with "ea": break - great - steak Less common words * with "a'" :Followed by one consonant: cooperation, creative, major, Pennsylvania, Wales :Followed by several consonants: angel, Cambridge, chamber :With magic e: bathe, cake, chase, fade, gate, gaze, indicate, mate, pace, pale, sake, shade, slave, spade, stake, tale, trace * with "'ai": constraint, entertainment, grain, jail, maintenance, plain, portrait, praise, rail, retail, sail, Spain, strain, sustain, tail, trail, Ukraine * with "ae": Mae, reggae * with "ay": essay, hay, Malaysia, Norway, pray, Raymond * with "ey": obey * with "ee": Beethoven /ˈbeɪˌtəʊvən/ * others: ballet, café, eh (interjection) Homophones brake - break; grate - great; male - mail; place - plaice (fish); plane - plain; rain - reign; sail - sale; steak - stake; tale - tail; wave - waive; waste - waist; Wales - whales; weigh - way; weight - wait; weighed - wade. Unstressed /eɪ/, /iː/ or /ɪ/ Many words ending in day can be pronounced with three pronunciations: *Monday /ˈmʌndeɪ, ˈmʌndiː, ˈmʌndɪ/ - Tuesday /ˈt(j)uːzdeɪ, ˈt(j)uːzdiː, ˈt(j)uːzdɪ/ - Wednesday /ˈwenzdeɪ, ˈwenzdiː, ˈwenzdɪ/ - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday *yesterday /ˈyestərˌdeɪ, ˈyestərdiː, ˈyestərdɪ/ *holiday /ˈhɒlədeɪ, ˈhɒlədiː, ˈhɒlədɪ / Words with only one pronunciation, ending in /deɪ/ *birthday - doomsday - everyday - holiday - payday - today - weekday Spelling Very often /eɪ/ is spelled "a". Almost never "a" as /eɪ/ is followed by a double consonant. A consonant is never doubled in derived words: rate - rated; make - maker. A double consonant indicates that the "a" is pronounced or, less often, Uncommon spellings *gauge /ɡeɪdʒ/ *gaol now replaced by jail *San Jose (California) /ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ/ Several words derived from French have "é", "ê" or "et" pronounced /eɪ/. *ballet, beret, buffet, café, cliché, crème brûlée, crêpe/crepe, décor/decor, déjà vu, entrée, fiancé, fiancée, flambé, gourmet, protégé, protégée, sauté, touché *elite, élite: /eɪˈliːt, ɪˈliːt/ *resumé, résumé, resume: /ˈrezjʊmeɪ, ˈrezʊmeɪ, ˈrezəmeɪ, ˌrezʊˈmeɪ/ *other: lingerie /ˌlɑːndʒəˈreɪ, ˈlænʒəriː / /e/ and /eɪ/ See main article IPA phonetic symbol [ɛ] Phoneme /e/ (as in dress) in many dialects is very different from the the beginning of /eɪ/. In IPA narrow notation [e] represents a sound that does not exist isolated in English, the "é" sound in French, as in beauté (beauty). In broad notation it doesn't matter if, for simplicity, we use /e/ for a different sound (namely [ɛ]) as in English dress or "ê" in French, as in bête (animal). Variant pronunciations /eɪ/ vs. /ə/ *administrative /ədˈmɪnɪˌstreɪtɪv, ədˈmɪnɪstrətɪv / *authoritative /ɔːˈθɒrəˌteɪtɪv , ɔːˈθɒrətətɪv / *imitative /ˈɪmɪˌteɪtɪv, ˈɪmɪtətɪv / ;Other *apricot /ˈeɪprɪkɒt, ˈæprɪkɒt / *basil /ˈbeɪzəl, ˈbæzəl/ *expatriate /ˌeksˈpeɪtriət, ˌeksˈpætriət / Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1 Spanish While /eɪ/ is virtually the same as the Spanish diphthong "ei", many Spanish speakers have difficulty remembering that the most common spelling for this sound is "a". For example, the movie The Matrix /ˈmeɪtrɪks/ was released as Matrix in most of the world, and the pronunciation used when speaking Spanish is ˈmatrɪks. Similarly "catering" /ˈkeɪtərɪŋ/ is ˈkaterin in Spanish, and sometimes it is even spelled "cáterin".Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, cáterin. References See also *Decoding the letter A *Decoding and spelling exercises: /æ/ vs /eɪ/ *Decoding exercises: "ai" *Decoding exercises: "ay" *Decoding exercises: "ei" *Pronunciation exercises: /eɪ/ vs /aɪ/ *Silent e External links *British Library: Learning - Sounds Familiar? Vowel /ei/ ei